The Truth Behind What Happened
by Sanura Bey
Summary: No one really know what happened back then. Only a select few humans were trusted and we broke the bond we had with them. Now I have to tell the truth. My name is Rose Lennox, and this is the truth behind the rumors.


I sat in class as everyone chatted around me.

"Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up." Mr. Hosney told him. Sam got up and walked to the front of the class, dropping some of the items from his bag.

"Sorry, I got a lot of stuff." Sam told Mr. Hosney while he set up. "Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-" Someone threw a paper ball at him making the class laugh. I just rolled my eyes and looked out the window.

"Who did- who did that? People! Responsibility." Mr. Hosney told everyone.

"Okay. Um. So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf." Sam told us. "So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth century seamen." the class laughed. "This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here." they laughed again. Immature idiots. "Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things."

"Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing." Mr. Hosney told him.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too." Sam told everyone and I smiled as they laughed. "And the compass makes a- a great gift for Columbus Day."

"Sam!" Mr. Hosney said.

"Sorry. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered." Sam told us before the bell rang.

"Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight." Mr. Hosney said as we all gathered our things and left the room.

"Here, you want? Here, 50. 40? 30?" Sam said, trying one last time with the glasses.

"Sam?" I heard Mr. Hosney said before I left the room to go home. When I got there I unlocked the door and went to my room to set down my things. I then waited for my friend, Mikaela and her boyfriend Trent, so we could go to the lake where a party was supposed to be happening.

"Hey, Rose!" she called out to me. "Let's go!" When we got there I leaned on Trent's truck as he, his friends, and Mikaela were all having a good time. I watched as a crappy yellow Camero pulled up and Sam and a friend of his got out of the car. Guess he pulled his money together after all. Sam's friend started to climb a tree, hanging upside down like a monkey.

"Hey, guys, check it out. Oh, hi. Hey, bro. That car. It's nice. Hey. So, what are you guys doing here?" Trent asked him.

"We're here to climb this tree." Sam told him.

"I see that. It looks- It looks fun." Trent told him sarcastically.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"You know, I thought I recognized you. You tried out for the football team last year, right?" Trent asked him.

"Oh, no, no, no, that- No. That wasn't like a... real tryout. I was researching a book I was writing." Sam told him.

"Oh, yeah?" Trent asked him.

"Yeah." Sam told him.

"Yeah? What's it about? Sucking at sports?" Trent asked him, he and his friends laughing.

"Haha. No, it's about the link between brain damage and football. No, it's a- it's a good book. Your- Your friends'll love it. You know, it's got mazes in it and, you know, little coloring areas, sections, pop-up pictures. It's a lot of fun." Sam said, making fun of them.

"That's funny." Trent said advancing on them.

"Okay, okay. You know what? Stop." I said stepping between the two of them.

"Hey, guys, I know of a party. Let's go, let's head." Trent told them. I walked with the rest of them to the truck, but didn't get in.

"Hey Mikaela, I'm just going to walk home." I told her.

"Are you sure?" she asked me.

"Hey, I've got a long day tomorrow anyway." I told her and she nodded understanding. "I'll see you later." I told her turning and walking back to town.

"Who's gonna come around..." I turned and saw Sam in his car pulling up next to me.

"Rose! It's Sam." he said and I stopped walking and turned to him.

"...when you break?"

"Witwicky? I hope I didn't get you stranded or anything." he said.

"I'm fine." I told him.

"You sure?" he asked me and I nodded to him. "So, listen, I was wondering if I could ride you home. I mean- give you a ride home in my car, to your house." he said and I looked at the road.

"Why not." I said and he opened the door for me.

"There you go." he said before he started driving. "So... uh..."

"I can't believe that I'm here right now." I told him.

"You can duck down if you want. I mean, it won't hurt my feelings." he told me and I smiled at him.

"Oh, no, no, no. I didn't mean- I didn't mean here with you. I just meant here, like, in this situation." I corrected myself.

"Oh." he said, not bothering to ask for clarification.

"This same situation that I'm always in. 'Cause, I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for my best friend needing someone." I said looking back out the window.

"Well, uh, there's a couple new additions in the car. Like, I just put in that light there. And that disco ball. And so the light reflects off the disco ball." he said, trying to make his arm look bigger.

"Oh?" I asked him.

"Yeah." he said.

"So how did you earn enough money for your car?" I asked him.

"Doing chores around the house, the neighborhood. Things like that." he told me.

"Really?" I asked him.

"Yeah." he said.

"Good for you." I told him with a smile. Suddenly the radio turned itself on and the car started to malfunction.

"Sorry, I'm just working out the kinks. You know, it's a new car." Sam told me as he drove it to a cliff.

"When I get that feeling, I want sexual healing"

"Oh. This radio is, like, you know- It's an old radio, too, so-" he told me and I watched him mess with the radio, trying to turn it off.

"Sexual healing. Sex-u-al."

"Look, this isn't something that I, you know- I can't get this radio to stop. Look, I wouldn't try this on you. You know. 'Cause this is like a romantic, romantic thing that I'm not trying to do." Sam told me.

"Uh-huh." I told him.

"Not that you're not worthy of trying something like this on." he said, trying to elaborate on what he'd said.

"No, of course not." I told him.

"I'm a friend of yours. I'm not a romantic friend. Romantic friends do this. I mean, I'm not that- that friend. I mean, we- I could be. If-" Sam tried saying but he was cut off.

"Wooooaw! Ah feel good!"

"Just pop the hood." I told him. He did as I said and I lifted it up to check to see what was wrong.

"Whoa, nice headers. You've got a high-rise double-pump carburetor. That's pretty impressive, Sam." I told him.

"Double-pump?" he asked me.

"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster." I told him, looking into the car.

"Oh. I like to go faster." he told me.

"And it looks like your, ah, your distributor cap's a little... loose." I told him, fixing it.

"Yeah? How did you know that?" he asked me.

"My dad. He was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it all apart, clean it, put it back together. Doesn't help my brother's in the military and taught me what he knew." I told him.

"That's weird. I just wouldn't peg you for mechanical." he told me.

"Well, you know, I don't really broadcast it. Guys don't like it when you know more about cars than they do." I said.

"Yeah, no, I'm cool with, uh, you know, females working on my engine. I prefer it, actually." Sam said and I laughed at him.

"Okay. You want to fire it up for me?" I asked him and he did as I asked him.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, no problem." he said, trying to start his car.

"Thanks." I said.

"You know, I was thinking. You know, if Trent's such a jerk, why do you hang out with him and his friends? Is it just for Mikaela?" he asked me. I sighed and started walking away.

"You know what? I'm just, uh, I'm gonna walk. Ah... Good luck with your car." I called to him.

"All right. Walking's healthy, right?" I heard Sam say as I walked away.

"Hey!" he called after me.

"There was something in everything about you... Baby come back! Yeeaah. You can blame it all on me"

"Hey! Wait a second!" I stopped and saw him drive up to me. I smiled and got back into his car.

"I was wrong and I just can't live without you"

* * *

"There it is." Sam said, dropping me off at my door.

"I had fun. Um. So, you know, thanks for listening." I said to him.

"Oh, yeah, yeah." Sam said.

"Do you think I'm shallow?" I asked.

"I think you're... No. No, no, no. I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with you." he told me and I smiled.

"Okay." I said, laughing a little.

"Yeah." he said.

"All right, I'll see you at school." I told him.

"All right." I got out of the car and walked back into my empty house.


End file.
